Wednesday January 25th
Every morning during the week there is chapel at 8am. This does vary hugely but this week it has been exceptional with Canon Benson talking from Isaiah 49. He has been reminding us of how much God cares for us and is aware of the details of our lives Verse 16 talks about us being engraved on God’s hands reminding us how he is always aware of our lives and his constant compassion for us. I’ve found that a great encouragement and comfort both for myself but also as I consider the plight of the patients I am seeing.
This morning I was helping out with the HIV clinic. HIV patients are a constant challenge both in the complexity and also the potential severity of their illness. Each patient here has about 5 minutes with a doctor while I’m sure at home they would have up to half an hour to be reviewed. Today’s clinic included a 12 year old who had defaulted from treatment for 6 months because the aunt she was living with had moved and not taken her for treatment. Also there was a woman of 53 who had had a cough for 1 week but on listening to her chest almost certainly has TB but can’t afford the UgSh18000 (about £5) for the chest x-ray. This really is a lot of money for these people.
This afternoon I was in out patients with one of the clinical officers and patients ranged from a woman with advanced carcinoma of the cervix, a one year old with pneumonia and a man with abdominal pain who has a gut perforation. My aim in being there has been to encourage where necessary guide decision making and prescribing but my respect for the clinical officers has grown enormously as I watch the range of situations they are having to deal with with very little medical support with their initial assessment of patients.
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